Digital Trends

Nikon Coolpix P5000

July 16th, 2007 | by David Elrich

Features and Design

The Nikon Coolpix P5000 looks like a thinner version of the zillions of 35mm point-and-shoot cameras lying in drawers around the world. Film as we all know is deader than the popularity of Congress and GWB. Overall the body has a nice textured finish, a comfortable pistol grip and even a non-skid pad to rest your right thumb when you’re framing your shots. Very nicely done. The black-bodied camera measures 3.9 x 2.5 x 1.6 (WHD, in inches) and weighs 8.4 ounces including battery, card and strap. It feels a lot lighter than it looks, which is good since this is camera for carrying around all the time in your pocket or purse.

The front is dominated by a 3.5x Zoom Nikkor optical zoom that translates to 36-126mm, a decent range although I prefer cameras with a wider opening angle (28mm) and even more power on the long end. Unlike many other models, the lens has a removable ring that lets you attach optional conversion lenses. This lets you get a wider range—for a price, of course. There’s not much else on the front other than the flash, the viewfinder, tiny microphone and AF Assist lamp, one of the most important features on any digital camera. This lamp is supposed to ensure sharp focus in poorly lit situations; more on this in a bit.

The top has some of that rangefinder vibe with two dials. Rather than their analog counterparts, these handle the main modes and the Command Dial is more like a scroll wheel to move you through the menus or make manual adjustments. The main mode dial hit alls the important bases including manual, aperture- and shutter-priority, Hi ISO (3200 max), movie mode and access to 16 Scene modes including Face Priority AF as well as the usual suspects (portrait, landscape, sports and so on). Near the Command Dial is the wide/tele zoom switch and power button. You’ll also find the cover for the hot accessory shoe for an optional flash.

The rear is dominated by a 2.5-inch LCD screen (rated 230K pixels) with five brightness adjustment levels. In case one of them doesn’t work, there’s a peep sight for the viewfinder which doesn’t have a diopter adjustment. There are indicator lights for the AF and flash right next to it. On the far left of the screen are five silver buttons: Fn (Function), Display, Playback, Menu and Delete. On the far right is the four-way controller with center OK/set button. The controller gives access to macro, self-timer, flash and exposure compensation adjustments. It’s fairly standard but the silver keys really standout so there’s little fumbling. On the right side is an AV out jack, there’s a speaker on left-hand side and on the bottom is the compartment for the lithium ion battery and SD card.

The camera comes with all you need to get started including battery, charger, strap, cables and so on. There’s also a 114-page printed owner’s manual that’s easy to follow. The camera is also supplied with Nikon’s PictureProject ver. 1.7 software that’s a very good free editing program. In fact, it’s one of the better ones from any of the camera companies. It definitely isn’t Photoshop CS3 or Lightroom but you can’t beat the price!

Once the battery was charged, a 4GB card loaded, it was time to hit the road.

Image Courtesy of Nikon